The present invention relates generally to light-emitting devices having organic electroluminescent material and, more particularly, to light-emitting devices wherein light emitted from an organic electroluminescent layer is modified by organic and/or inorganic photoluminescent materials.
Electroluminescent (“EL”) devices, which may be classified as either organic or inorganic, are well known in graphic display and imaging art. EL devices have been produced in different shapes for many applications. Inorganic EL devices, however, typically suffer from a required high activation voltage and low brightness. On the other hand, organic EL devices (“OELDs”), which have been developed more recently, offer the benefits of lower activation voltage and higher brightness in addition to simple manufacture, and, thus, the promise of more widespread applications.
An OELD is typically a thin film structure formed on a substrate such as glass or transparent plastic. A light-emitting layer of an organic EL material and optional adjacent semiconductor layers are sandwiched between a cathode and an anode. The semiconductor layers may be either hole (positive charge)-injecting or electron (negative charge)-injecting layers and also comprise organic materials. The material for the light-emitting layer may be selected from many organic EL materials. The light emitting organic layer may itself consist of multiple sublayers, each comprising a different organic EL material. State-of-the-art organic EL materials can emit electromagnetic (“EM”) radiation having narrow ranges of wavelengths in the visible spectrum. Unless specifically stated, the terms “EM radiation” and “light” are used interchangeably in this disclosure to mean generally radiation having wavelengths in the range from ultraviolet (“UV”) to mid-infrared (“mid-IR”) or, in other words, wavelengths in the range from about 300 nm to about 10 micrometer. To achieve a white light, prior-art devices incorporate closely arranged OELDs emitting blue, green, and red light. These colors are mixed to produce white light. An alternate scheme to produce white light is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,294,870 which describes an organic EL multicolor display device comprising an organic EL source emitting blue light with green- and red-emitting fluorescent materials applied to different subpixel areas. This device emits different colors from the different subpixel areas by color shifting with the green- and red-emitting fluorescent materials. However, the manufacture of such microdevices is complex and requires sophisticated technologies.
Another example of an OELD is described in Junji Kido et al., “Multilayer White Light-Emitting Organic Electroluminescent Device,” 267 Science 1332-1334 (1995). This device includes three emitter layers with different carrier (or charge) transport properties, each emitting blue, green, or red light, which layers are used together to generate white light. However, the formation of successive layers requires a high degree of care so that the interfaces between the layers do not introduce unnecessary barriers to charge transport. In this device, the layers emitting the different colors typically degrade over time at different rates. Consequently, the color of light emitted from the device is likely to change over time. In addition, the uniformity of the light output over the emitting area of the device may be less than desirable because of imperfections at the interfaces between the layers.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a light source based on organic EL materials that emit light at controllable wavelengths that have improved efficiency and that is simple to manufacture. It is also desirable to use such light sources to produce white light.